23 SEPTEMBER 1837, Page 6

The Examiner last Sundry dev aed two more column; of

small print to the laudable purpose of bolstering up his recent misrepresentation of the Spectator,—or, the failure being melancholy, it might only be a device for throwing dust in the eyes of his readers ; for, indeed, he himself is Hot ass enough to believe his own tale that the Spectator has been " going about" to the Tories. 'The original matter eis exhausted, and, on our adversary's part, run to the very lees of quib- bling; but we have no objection to show-up the new forint; in which be has cast his falsehoods. In so doing, we act on the defensive, as we have done throughout this controversy. The vicious policy of the Examiner we freely exposed ; but never, except in retaliation, used terms of incivility or imputed motives. We said that a Whig Conservative Government, subsisting on paY Red patronage, would come to disgrace. Whereupon, observes the Examiner- " Thus, therefore, it would appear that its practical or administrative im- provements, the prospect of wilkh was so satisfactory to the Spectator, as affording it a congenial vocation, would not be at all satisfactory to the couotry —nay, would not save the Miuistry from disgrace and ruin! Now,

how i it

that that which would please 'the observed of all observers' so well, would so nil please the country ?" It was never said that such a Government would please the country,

s or that it would deserve to please the country, or that it would please

the Spectator; but that administrative improvements might be forced from such a Government, and that it was a more congenial vocation to get administrative improvements from a Government, however com- posed, than to assist in carrying on delusion. " The Whig Government, contemplated by the Spectator, as it asserts, was not only to be Conservative in policy, but ostensibly opposed to Reform : 'sham' was to be' at an end,' and therefore some good was to occur. And pray what was to tempt the Whigs to drop the _pretensions of a Reform Go- vernment and to oppose themselves ostensibly to Reform, what was to be the motive, what the gain, the advantage of any kind ?"

The Whigs, in the circumstances contemplated, would no longer be permitted to wear the mask. " An opposition is supposed, too, to the Government welcomed by the Spec- tator, a watchful, vigorous, and highly useful opposition.' " Exactly ; and it is to this Opposition that we should look to force improvements from the Examiner's Whig. Tory friends in power.

.4 So that the Government in question, ostensibly opposed to Reform, and bidding for popularity by administrative improvements, and having arrayed against it a watchful, vigorous, and highly useful opposition, could not be the Whig Conservative Government expected by the .Spectator to be under the direction not of a highly useful opposition,' but of a Tory opposition l" " So that," indeed ! There would be just as much necessity for a watchful and vigorous Opposition, the Conservative Whigs being in power, as if the Tories were in power. In a Conservative- Whig Government, the party now called " Opposition" would be in effect the allies of that Government—lacking pay and patronage, but seeing their own policy followed out by the Whigs in office. The real, watchful, and "highly useful" Opposition, would be the Independent Reformers.

"As the Spectator is always endeavouring to prove that the Whigs are not better than the Tories, why is it now se anxious to deny its pleasurable antici. intim of a Tory Ministry?"

We are not "always endeavouring to prove that the Whigs are no better than the Tories ;" but we deny what the Examiner and other Ministerial mouthpieces have advanced, simply because it is not true— simply because we have no pleasurable anticipation of a Tory Ministry. 1, Our allegation that the Spectator has preached the Tory.Radical doctrine of submission to the Tory Lords, in other words, submission to a Tory Go- vernment for the petty concessions they may make in barter for the sweets of office and power, is denied with the usual effrontery; but it is borne out by the drift and tenor of the Spectator's writings for the last year. Its desires may, moreover, be fairly inferred from the tendency of its labours; and what it has been about for the last twelvemon,h, if not about the reinstatement of the Tories in powsr, it would be hard to conceive."

It is easy to conceive and to state what the Spectator has been about for the last twelvemonth. At. this time last year, or rather, some

months earlier, we laboured hard to induce the Whigs to adopt a manly

policy which would counteract that of the Tories under LYNDHURST, and rouse instead of depressing the Reform spirit of the country. The

Whigs would do nothing of the kind. We next advocated the "open

question " policy ; which the Examiner also, after a fashion, professed to fsvour. Again disappointtd, (to use a mild term for cheated, which

might not be inapplicable,) our next course was to urge the Inde- pendent Members of Parliament to bring forward good measures, on their own merits, regardless of Ministerial opposition. To some extent this was done, to a greater extent it was left undone. The

session commenced, and we were occupied in watching its pro- gress, and making manifest its utter and disgraceful failure. 'f be King died : we then warned the 'Ministers and the Liberals, that their

electioneering policy was a mistaken one, and that they would gain very little additional strength, notwithstanding the change at Court,

unless they gave the Reformers something substantial to contend for.

Instead ot a gain, a loss has ensued ; for the Ministry trusted to Court influence, and damped Reform. We are now employed in exposing the actual condition of affairs, in order that there may be an end to delusion, and that the public may know what they have to expect, as a preliminary to the decision of what they ought to do.

Well ; a retrospect of the year shows that the Tory-opposing course of the Spectator has not been followed. The Examiner's friends have been in power, and have had a windfall ; his writings have tasted like honey to the W higs ; his words have been wise and pleasant to our rulers ; and yet it does so happen that the Tories are almost in. The policy which has been pursued, not that which has been repudiated, is answerable for the event.